Hyland's 4 Kids

Test Images:
(Never Used)

A little over a year ago,  my agent approached me with an opportunity to develop some characters for
the Hyland’s 4 Kids line.  I was told that I would have to compete with other artist for the job.  I find that this is common with many of my bigger project opportunities.

When I first started the project,  My test was to create 2 animal characters (a cheetah and a penguin) along with 2 kid characters in my highly rendered technique.
I was told they wanted to explore both options to see which direction to take.  I was so excited to hear I was the artist chosen to finish the project and have my characters represent Hyland's Inc.

As  for the winning character,  they chose the boy with the stuffed teddy bear.  They felt that these characters related more with Moms (their main consumer) compared to the cheetah and penguin characters.

Hyland’s has graciously given  me the approval to post the 2 animal characters that were not choose for this project.   What you see above is exactly how I presented the final artwork to them.


If you would like to find out more about the Hyland’s 4 Kids line and/or explore some of the fun activity pages featuring my characters,  chek out their site here.

I really had a  great time working on this project and hope that I have more opportunities like this come my way in the future.

Laws for Kids

Image Samples:

Character Breakdown:

This is a 12 page book I created for Reading A-Z.

They Specialize in publishing digital books that teachers can download in their classrooms and give to the kids to take home to practice reading.

This particular book focuses on safety. It was written by Maribeth Boelts.

As for the technique,  I was asked to work in a vector format.  I created the illustrations using Adobe Illustrator CS5.  I was also asked to create two versions of the book.  One in color and the other in black and white.  This gives the teachers and students the option of printing the book out with full or limited color.

I have included only a few of the 12 pages along with a character breakdown image of my thoughts as I designed the characters.

Deer 2 Year Old Birthday Card

This card is currently out in all Target stores.

It was created for a two year old birthday.  I have indicated were the number two was to be placed on the card.  The card,  had 2 finishings...hot stamp and flocking.  The flocking is a soft fuzzy material that was placed over the fur.  What you see is the artwork underneath.  The number two was in a Purplish Hot Stamp (Metal Like Material).


Next time your in Target check it out.

Superhero Vinyl Clings

I created these characters as part of a Superhero sticker/vinyl clings activity set.  There is also a city scene that comes with the set.  You can find these at Target stores with the party invitations.

I created the characters and the city scene in Illustrator.

Postcard Promotional

Yep, she's back!

My agent recently requested each of us to send her 250 postcards so she could send them out for possible work. As soon as I received the email, I knew that this character was perfect.
My 3 little girls absolutely loved this character so much, when I designed her for the email blast; that I decided I would finish her for the postcard promotional. I based the character off of my oldest daughter Natalie, who is 9 years old. As for a lot of the elements in the room, I based the objects off of each of my girls belongings.
Every now and then while I was working on this piece, one of them would come up to me and say "hey that's my whatever." I love incorporating special little things like that in my work.
I am really happy with how everything turned out and hope that everyone who see's it feels the same.

Email Promotional

Every now and then, my agent ask me to participate in a group email blast.

This time she requested that each of us to create a 3x3 illustration of a characters head and shoulders. She said it could be human or animal, our choice.

As I looked through my files for inspiration, I noticed that I rarely draw girls, even though I have 3 daughters who fill my life with so much happiness.

As for the design, I had a lot of fun, just focusing on the face of the character. I wanted the image to look like a school photo. I created this piece using Photoshop CS5.

I hope you like it!

Target Mother's Day Greeting Card Series

Caterpillar Card:
Cover:

Inside:

Bird With Mailbox Card:
Cover:

Inside:

Hedgehog Card:
Cover:

Inside

I know this theme is a little girly but, hey...it's for Mother's Day. You can find this card series in all Target Stores.
I created the pieces using Adobe Illustrator, which is a big deal for me considering I self taught myself the program. Granted, the learning curve for illustrator is no where near as complex as Photoshops but, it still has it's difficulties. Learning Illustrator has been a goal for me for some time. I have always and still use Photoshop's Shape Layers/Paths for most of my work but, now that I have a good grasp on illustrator, I plan on using it when it makes the most sense for the job I am asked to do.
I hope everyone checks the card series out the next time they are at Target and that they enjoy them as much as I had creating them.